International Relations: State Power, Balance of Power, and International Systems, Assignments of International Relations

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State Power/Power Politics Balance of Power International Systems

Key Concepts

Anarchy and self-help.

The security dilemma.

Security dilemma within a society of states.

Power Politics: whereas power is unequally

distributed, each state must provide its own

security, and whereas one state’s security is

another’s threat, states continually seek for

power to be secure.

PP includes diplomacy, alliance, BoP, War,

Peace, even IO. Primacy is Power.

Nature of GP Power Politics

Status Quo vs. Revolutionary GP’s.

Tools: national power, alliances, diplomacy.

(Classical vs. Cold War: Structural Realism

{K. Waltz})

GPs may seek concert for world domination.

GP may seek universal empire.

Former GPs may be submerged in power

structure of supplanter: Holland-England, A-

H Empire-Germany, UK-US, ?USA-China?

Balance of Power: various

meanings

Historical/descriptive assessment of power. BoP not as conscious state policy but as a function of systems equilibrium. Grotian (Liberal) Balance: enlightened self-interest makes near equilibrium a founding principle of the society of states (eg: Concert of Europe), used to limit conflict, grant compensation, and avert hegemony, eventually overcome war. Machiavellian Balance: BoP is inevitable. States only have permanent interests: maintaining the scales in their favour. BoP is inherently unstable. Immanuel Kant: reject ‘the power trap’, both as practice and as prescription.

International Systems

The type of configuration of power in a time and geographical framework. Holsti’s five IS aspects: boundary, units, interaction, norms, structure. Structure: number of GPs, nature of their power, alliances. Neo-realism (K. Waltz) makes int’l structure the key explanation of all international politics.

Types of Structure

Unipolar (tether pole). National or bloc power: Roman Empire. Multipolar (merry-go-round). National power and alliances. (1648-1814 Europe), South Asia today. Bipolar (see-saw). National power and alliance blocs. Triple Alliance {Ge, It, A-H, 1882) and Triple Entente {Eng-Fr-Rus. 1907}, and Cold War. Each has its own type of dominant security problem: challenger/assimilation; shifting alliances; escalation/zero-sum conflict

Today’s International System

Boundaries: global strong points Units: democracies vs. the rest Interaction: eco, pol, mil, cult. Structure: unipolar and multipolar mixed.

Complicating Factors

Non-state actors and intrastate wars. Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD). Trade blocs vs. WTO USA is not a traditional empire. It is a mixture of: primus inter pares, benevolent hegemon, globocop, and traditional GP. ‘Triumph’ of Liberalism and instant communication challenges legitimacy of national interest and possibility of limited war.